Page 16 - Life In Naples March 2022 Flipbook
P. 16

chickee talk























          The Good Old Days


                 Are NOW                                                                                                                                                                  Friday, March 25, 2022 at Wyndemere Country Club
                                                                                                                                                          VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE
        by Tina Osceola
                                 he one thing that social media,   all the wasted time and emotion I surrendered.  Some folks will
                                 mainly Facebook, has forced me    compliment me on a photo and say they loved my smile or they                                               NAPLES STAR
                          Tto do is to remember. Facebook          loved my “outfit,” but all I see is the pain from that era.  Knowing
                          “Memories” in the form of photos that I   that I was hiding many truths while worrying about a relationship
                          recurringly stumble upon from my own     that was never meant to be.
                          past or family’s history, pop up like a sweet   Life is a journey and I was meant to learn a few things along
                          surprise from the days gone by.  I look   the way.  The photo collage that makes up my life started taking
                          upon old black and white photos of my    shape and making sense once I became a mom.  When I look
                          grandparents and think how life must have   at photos of time spent with my children knowing I was where
        been for them. I gaze upon my childhood holiday pictures and   I needed to be… where I was meant to be.  All the trials and
        remember how much I looked forward to that time of year.  I can   tribulations of my life led me to right here… right now.  The good
        even close my eyes and smell the moth balls that emanated from   old days are here, each and every day that I wake up.  I can make
        the wooden storage box that I longed to see brought in from the   a choice to embrace these days as the Grandma of Miakoda and                 Amanda Beights            Dr. John Bahr        Heather Mazurkiewicz     Dr. Joaquin Hernandez
        garage.  My dad repurposed an old citrus crate into a box where we   Otto, the Mother of Dakota and Brody, the Daughter of O.B.
        would store our Christmas lights and decorations.  For whatever   and Joanne, the Partner of Arlo, the Sister to O.B…. the list goes
        reason, that old box brings back more great memories than any   on.  It is a purposeful effort not to waste my time worrying about
        present I ever received.  Other than my red patent leather go-go   something else or wishing I was somewhere else because of the
        boots from Sears and Roebuck, I can’t even remember my most   regret that I may feel in the future.  I refuse to set myself up for
        precious presents. I think back while writing this article and realize   that failure.  In five or thirty years, I don’t want to look at the
        that that box represented family time.  Time with my dad while we   photos of myself with my parents, children, grandchildren, partner
        unrolled the lights and tested for bulbs.  My brother and I would   or good friends and remember the thoughts behind those eyes as
        crawl around and call out which color was burned out and our   being anything but present… anything but grateful.  Another life
        mom and dad would come change it out.  Time with my mom as   lesson learned through these trying times of a global pandemic
        she carefully took the Christmas decorations out of their boxes and   is that tomorrow is never promised.  It used to seem so cliché,
                                                                                                                                                       Lois Bolin Ph.D.        Kimberly Tricker         Robert Williamson          Robert L. Nardi
        handed them to us one by one to hang on the tree.  The magic of   however, I have lost so many near and dear to me and realized the
        unwrapping my mom’s hand-painted nativity set.  That one night   value of that one last conversation, the last hug, the last promise to
        we were all focused on one thing together.                 get together.
           Photos kick my melancholy into overdrive and then I start
                                                                                 The good days are everyday.
        time traveling into eras, chapters, and other universes that don’t
                                                                                 The good days are right now.
        even belong to me.  The ones that stop me in my tracks the most
        are ones that remind me of what was on my mind at the time the                    Carpe diem!
        photo was taken.  Photos when I knew I wanted to be elsewhere
        or when I was caught up in some political drama.  Even worse, is
        when I look at photos of myself during “boy troubles” and realize
                                                                                                                                                                               Sandra Lee Buxton,       Zoran Stamenkovic
                                                                                                                                                                                    CMCD
     16                                                                                                      Life in Naples | March 2022  Life in Naples | March 2022                                                                                          17
   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21